James Gurney

This daily weblog by Dinotopia creator James Gurney is for illustrators, plein-air painters, sketchers, comic artists, animators, art students, and writers. You'll find practical studio tips, insights into the making of the Dinotopia books, and first-hand reports from art schools and museums.

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or by email:gurneyjourney (at) gmail.comSorry, I can't give personal art advice or portfolio reviews. If you can, it's best to ask art questions in the blog comments.

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All images and text are copyright 2015 James Gurney and/or their respective owners. Dinotopia is a registered trademark of James Gurney. For use of text or images in traditional print media or for any commercial licensing rights, please email me for permission.

However, you can quote images or text without asking permission on your educational or non-commercial blog, website, or Facebook page as long as you give me credit and provide a link back. Students and teachers can also quote images or text for their non-commercial school activity. It's also OK to do an artistic copy of my paintings as a study exercise without asking permission.

We decided that since the painting evokes the spirit of Lawrence Alma Tadema, John Godward, and other Victorian painters who used these architectural frames (also called "aedicula" frames), it might be fitting to create a new one along those lines. (Above: "Antony and Cleopatra" by Tadema in a vintage frame.)

Troy has specialized in the forgotten art of building tabernacle frames, and has mastered techniques used by frame builders over a hundred years ago. He has built similar frames for actual Tademas, and he was willing to take on the challenge. Above: another Tadema in a Stafford frame.

I began by drawing up a sketch for the frame using the Roman Corinthian order as the basis of the design. The painting itself actually quotes Roman architecture in the buildings behind the dinosaurs.

Troy ordered the pilaster capitals and the egg-and-dart moulding along the bottom from Decorator's Supply in Chicago. Founded in 1883, the company still has original moulds from the days of the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition. We were lucky to get workers at Decorator's Supply to cast the capitals for us because the company was working with a skeleton crew and was about to close up shop for the season.

Troy then constructed the parts of the frame from basswood, poplar, and pine. It’s lock-mitered together with mortise and tenon. He formulated the gesso and red bole undercoat by hand from raw ingredients. He finished it in an oil-gilt 23.5 carat gold leaf.

The Dinosaur Boulevard frame was decorated using the pastiglia process, a bas relief process used in the Renaissance. The detail in the design is a three-toed dinosaur footprint.

Impressive frames, great backstory. Good to know of people like Troy keeping vanishing methods of work alive. In the top image, are you holding a reflective sheet to bounce light for the photo? Or is it something else?

Steve, yes, good eye. Arthur Evans shoots both artwork and people by using a bounced fill light and a single light source. He uses large corrugated plastic sheets covered with tinfoil and hinged to control the direction and amount of fill.

Thanks everyone for your kudos to Troy. I agree. I was blown away by his work. He does frames for people like Richard Schmid and Jeremy Lipking.

speaking of frames, when the new american wing reopens, "washington crossing the delware" will have a new frame that recreates the originalhttp://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/19/arts/design/19fram.html?pagewanted=all

What amazing work. The perfect way to frame these paintings. The paintings are like looking into another world. These frame extend the fantasy out from the painting a bit further into our world, somehow.